Hypocrisy award goes to anti-Territory MP

How would you described Australian Members of Parliament who want Pacific islanders to have more rights and greater decision-making powers than the Australians whom the MPs represent? Hypocrites would be the only world: meet the retiring Kevin Andrews MHR and Minister for the Pacific, Senator Zed Seselja…islander advocates but no lovers of equal democratic rights for all Aussies.

Restoring equal rights to Territorians

A man who was there are at the foundations of legal structures in Canberra, Allan N Hall AM, has explained clearly why citizens of the the NT – and of the ACT – should have equal rights to all citizens of Australian States in a submission to the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. The committee clearly states it is considering voting rights, and is not interested in rehashing the voluntary assisted dying debate The committee’s report is due on 6 October 2021.

CLA posts Australia Day letters for 2021

To Kevin Andrews MHR:
Civil Liberties Australia on Australia Day 2021 asks the man responsible for citizens of the ACT and the NT having lesser rights than all others Australians – they are not able to even vote on dying with dignity/euthansia law – to ‘rescind’ the federal law he promoted by lodging a new Private Member’s Bill to restore the rights of 600,000 fellow Australians. Here’s the Andrews letter.

To WA Police Commissioner (and Police Minister):

On Australia Day 2021, CLA asks for an apology from WAPOL and the State for those people the police falsely and irresponsibly named as ‘persons-of-interest’ before, some 25 years later, Bradley Edwards was convicted and sentenced. We asked particularly for an apology of Peter Weygers and civil liberties: Weygers was then the local president, whose reputation was ruined by the erroneous police accusation. Click here for the letter.

To Ministers for Corrective Services, throughout Australia:

CLA asks, on Australia Day 2021, that you review the rules, sometimes archaic, about what prisoners can receive through the mail and other associated censorship concerns, including their rights to educational material and to private correspondence with the lawyers. For the letter sent to WA click here. And for a CLA/Uni of Qld report on the state of censorship in prisons in Australia, click here.

Dying: why not a referendum?

Death is certain, but older people observe frailer elders closing on finality in nursing homes and think there should be a better way, and an ultimate choice, without penalty. Former ACT Speaker Greg Cornwell believes it’s time for a national referendum.

Backing call for living wills

Editor, The Canberra Times.

The call, by Professor Ken Hillman, (3 January 2011) for a national living-will program to uphold the views of people seeking to die with dignity when at the end stage of their life, and endorsed by your editorial (4 Jan…

Living will: your right to die

The issue of right to die has hit the front of Australia’s metropolitan daily newspapers this silly season, with the Canberra Times featuring a call by Professor Ken Hillman to respect people’s wishes. Also featured is the story of CLA member, Adele Ste…